PodcastDirectory.com's listings of the Quirks and Quarks Podcasts

qq-2010-02-06_06-Science Fact or Science Fiction: Swallowing Gum

If you swallow gum it will stay in your stomach for seven years. This is science fiction according to a gastroenterologist at McMaster University.

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A physical chemist at the University of Toronto has found that a common marine algae uses the properties of quantum mechanics to help it suck sunlight.

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The larvae of a beetle in Alaska can survive temperatures of -100C by vitrifying - transforming into viscous glass.

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Evidence has been found that the Pueblo People of the Southwestern US domesticated the turkey more than two thousand years ago.

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Using Usain Bolt's top speed of nearly 28 mph in the 100 metre race as an example, scientists believe that by maximizing ground force, that speed could be improved to 40 mph.

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An experimental psychologist has determined that a person who initiated an action actually performed the task more slowly than they would if they'd been the person reacting - so in a western gunfight, its better to be first than fast.

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A scientist has found out that a dominant male baboon will allow subordinate males to mate occasionally, so they have infants in the troop that in turn need protecting as well.

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Scientists have found a plant this if taken advantage of by too many caterpillars, can switch the timing of its flowering to the daytime, when hummingbirds can pollinate it.

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In bats, a bone that connects the larynx to the bones that support the eardrum has been identified. It is called the stylohal bone and it is key to a bats' ability to echolocate.

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Callisto and Ganymede, the two outermost great moons of Jupiter, should be twins, but one was smashed by comets and asteroids, the other escaped.

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Pits containing stacked skeletons of numerous theropods were actually 150 million-year-old footprints of the 20-ton Sauropod. The much smaller theropods simply fell in and were not able to get out.

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Researchers have found structures preserved within dinosaur fossil feathers that they think are melanosomes - clues to the colours in their plumage.

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Drinking alcohol to keep warm is science fiction.

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New research from the University of Southern California, Santa Barbara has found that female fruit flies are just too attractive to the males for their own good.

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In an experiment matching the growth of Physarum polycephalum (slime mould) against an existing man-made network,the slime mould was able to mimic the Tokyo railway system.

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The tall-grass prairie used to be a major feature of Manitoba. The remaining patches have been in decline because it needed two things to maintain its health - bison and fire. The bison are gone, and fire has been suppressed.

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A disease called Kuru exploded through a population of people in Papua New Guinea in the 1950's. It was eventually linked to their practice of cannibalistic funeral rituals. Many died, but now researchers have discovere that those that survived had a genetic immunity to the disease.

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A sea slug has been discovered that has somehow developed the ability to photosynthesize - and live out its life as a solar-powered animal.

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New research has found that humans have the ability to strengthen memories as they sleep.

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Astrophysicists believe that fluctuations in density and temperature of the gas in planetary disks, pushes the planets around and allows them to find orbital safe havens in which to exist.

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